Another Melanippus was a citizen of Patrae, who fell in love with Comaetho. However, the parents of both lovers had a rivalry between them and forbade the two of them to see each other. Melanippus and Comaetho secretly met in the temple of the goddess Artemis and slept together. Artemis, enraged by their behaviour, put a curse in the region, bringing plague and famine. The oracle of Delphi instructed the citizens of Patrae that the two lovers had to be sacrificed and that the most good looking man and woman would be sacrificed every year, until a new god or goddess appeared in the city. So it happened, until the god Dionysus was introduced to Patrae shortly after the fall of Troy.